Blackpool to decide on trialist Mitch Clark from Leicester City ahead of Morecambe match

The Leicester City defender trained with the Seasiders last week before playing the second half of Saturday’s 1-0 win at Carlisle United.

The 22-

year-old was given another chance to impress on Tuesday night, when he played all 90 minutes of the 1-0 defeat to Premier League side Burnley.

Critchley was pleased with what he saw from the former Aston Villa academy graduate and Port Vale loanee, but it remains to be seen if Clark will feature in Pool’s final pre-season friendly of the summer against Pool’s fellow play-off winners.

Pool’s head coach said: “Defensively he stuck to his task really well and he had some good moments of defending, particularly one v one around the box.

“It’s good for him to play 90 minutes. He’s already played 90 minutes, so we knew he could last the game. Like the team, he grew into the game and got better.

“I don’t know yet if he’ll be involved on Saturday. He was with us last week and he’s played the two friendlies, so that will be a discussion we have with the staff, with him and Leicester because they are his parent club.”

The 3pm friendly at the Globe Arena brings an end to a disrupted pre-season programme for Critchley’s men.

A Covid outbreak among the squad left Pool without a host of key first-team players, also forcing last week’s friendly against Rangers to be scrapped.

Only a handful of players have been lucky enough to get 90 minutes in the bank, with most limited to 65-minute appearances.

When asked if more members of his squad are likely to be given 90 minutes against Morecambe, Critchley said: “We’ll see. Because of the situation we’ve been in, it’s been difficult.

“Ideally we’d want a lot of the players to play 90 minutes. But if they played 90 minutes against Carlisle, then with the situation we’re in they couldn’t have then played 90 minutes against Burnley as well because it was a game of high intensity.

“Then you become an injury risk, so we have to believe in our training process and how we train.

“We’re off a shorter break and a shorter pre-season but the players are in good condition. I don’t think we looked tired or leggy against Burnley. We were at it, we were just playing against good players.”

Thanks for reading. If you value what we do and are able to support us, a digital subscription is just £1 for your first month. Try us today by clicking here